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Item Ships From: Berkshires
Antique1890s ImperialJadeite TranslucentGreen IntricateCarvedFlora ScrewEarrings
Located in Chicago, IL
Made during the crossover Arts-&-Crafts and Art-Nouveau movements, these antique Chinese earrings feature rare Burmese natural untreated translucent im...
Category
1890s Chinese Arts and Crafts Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Jade, Brass, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
$2,200 Sale Price / set
75% Off
Couture 1938 France Depose ElsaSchiaparelli Pagan FeatherCrystalGold Bird Brooch
By Elsa Schiaparelli
Located in Chicago, IL
Unusually decorated with small partridge feathers like the yellow-gold gilt necklace commissioned by Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) that is featured on the front-and-back covers and centerfold of the French costume-jewelry hardcover book, Lina Baretti Parures, authored by Patrick Mauries, this unique pave-crystal yellow-gold gilt metal partridge-on-a-branch brooch is further distinguished as an unsigned Parisian-couture piece for Italian-born Schiaparelli with its combination of embossed text "Made In France" and "Modele Depose", along with the trombone clasp often used in the early 20th Century for custom-made French small brooches.
The book centerfold on pages 90-91 shows a closeup of the feathered necklace created by French-born Corsican Baretti, whose intricate decoration often mixed ready-made textural or shiny materials like velvet, cork, wire, rhodoid or raffia with custom-made metal, plastic or glass by specialized Parisian workshops such as Maison Gripoix. The Baretti-book caption about the attributed necklace notes: "Collier realise pour Elsa Schiaparelli. Liege, soie, cannetille, perles de verre et plumes de perdix. Chaine en metal." While none of the captions date this necklace--which could have been from the same commission as our brooch--Baretti created one-of-a-kind jewelry for Schiaparelli from the 1930s to the early 1950s until the fashion designer retired.
Our brooch was most likely made for a fashion-show debut of one of Schiaparelli's themed clothing collections in the late 1930s for which she commissioned many costume-jewelry paruriers including Baretti. See our photo of a Schiaparelli 1930s...
Category
1930s French Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Gold, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Antique Amuletic Dozen RockCrystals CagedRing Medieval Style Gilt Bronze Pendant
Located in Chicago, IL
This antique amuletic bronze framed pendant cages a dozen 7mm-diameter single-cut rock crystals that each feature a table-cut decagon crown, deep pavilion, 21 facets and uncut girdle, while the culets range from off-center to blunted. They are tightly set within four linked rings to overlap at the same angle in a sparkling single row. Seeming to retain a little of its original yellow-gold gilding on just the interior, the frame that surrounds each of the four sections of three crystals enables them to reflect pale-yellow-and-lime light when the pendant is viewed from certain angles. Each crystal can be manually rotated.
Suggesting French heritage, the Medieval Frankish culture in northern France made jewelry in similar segmented or openwork shapes of wheels or whorls, which were worn as gem-decorated disk-shaped brooches or gold-caged rock...
Category
18th Century French Renaissance Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Rock Crystal, Gilt Metal, Bronze, Copper
Couture Chanel 1930s Byzantine PurpleHeart RealGems&Pearls Gold Medallion Brooch
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
When Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel was at her peak during the Art-Deco period as a Parisian couture-fashion designer in the early 1930s, this one-of-a-kind handcrafted gem-fringed and gilt-chain medallion brooch with trombone clasp was commissioned by her to accessorize one of her clothing designs. Marked only "FRANCE" like some early 1930s Chanel couture jewelry (without a brand stamp until the 1950s), its artistic origin is most likely from ornate organic-form sketches by her favorite parurier Fulco di Verdura. The Sicilian duke began creating fabric patterns for Chanel in 1927, which shortly expanded to fine jewelry beginning with custom pieces for herself. These included the iconic Byzantine-influenced gem-adorned cuffs referencing the Maltese-military cross, which the French designer can often be seen wearing in circa-1930s photos.
This bright-yellow gold brooch suits goldsmith Verdura's early anti-Art-Deco aesthetic that was considered a radical departure from 1920s silver-tone jewelry, which otherwise featured linear geometric designs or figurative representation. The softly-shaped deconstructed gem-bouquet mixes amethyst and rose-quartz beads with natural Keshi pearls and intricate tiny gilt leaves, which are wired to a Baroque-motif open-work frame that dangles another gem surrounded by a thick gilt-rope halo. Notably, Verdura is credited with re-introducing since Victorian times the rope motif to jewelry.
Since 1930, Verdura's unique style was influenced by travels with Chanel to explore Byzantine art, Baroque architecture, and exotic flora-and-fauna among his native Italian aristocratic estate. The legendary fashion-editor Diane Vreeland and American entertainment-stars were among the first Chanel clients to acquire couture real-gem-adorned jewelry made by Verdura, while one of the two brooches treasured by Vreeland was titled "Theodora". See our photo of the Byzantine mosaic of Empress Theodora, whose image wearing many teardrop pearls above her chest and surrounded by a golden halo seems to be the inspiration for this brooch.
As one of the most important modern-design collaborations, Chanel's close relationship with Verdura lasted largely undocumented years in Paris, until he launched his first outside jewelry venture with a Hollywood designer-boutique after emigrating to the United States in 1934. By 1939 as a financially-backed in-demand goldsmith, he founded the namesake jewelry-company Verdura in New...
Category
1930s French Byzantine Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Amethyst, Pearl, Quartz, Gold, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
MiramHaskell c1930 Stamped Brass FloralMotif Pendants Link Chain Choker Necklace
By Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring stamped-brass findings c1930, this Miriam Haskell collar necklace was made by her first designer Frank Hess in an Art-Nouveau style with ornate floral motifs for its 15 dangling bud-shaped or fluted-ball pendants, along with intricate textural patterns on the bands that link the oval-ring chain choker. Among the festoon of graduating charms, the largest centered pendant is 1.5 inches long and 0.75 inches in diameter. One of our photos show that the surprisingly light-weight pendants are hollow--some with a hole punched at the bottom.
The distinct stamped brass, which include a fold-over clasp, are found in more obviously Haskell-Hess pre-WWII jewelry...
Category
1930s American Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass
Krementz 1950s Boxed RoseFlowerCharms TriColor GoldPlate Chain Link Bracelet
By Krementz & Co
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring five intricate rose-flower charms, Krementz finished this chain link bracelet with its characteristic multi-color gold gilding, which is known for being as much as 30 times thicker than the overlay of other jewelry companies as a testament to the enduring quality of its designs. The elegant textured linked shapes and flowers recall the Art- Nouveau style that distinguished the earliest designs by Krementz for women in the 1920s. The brand signature is on
the fold-over clasp.
As three pieces of this listing, the excellent-condition bracelet comes with its original signed green-velvet...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Nouveau Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gold Plate, Rose Gold, White Gold, Yellow Gold
Artist BertoiaStyle Hammered SterlingSilver SquiggleSpiral UndulatingWire Brooch
Located in Chicago, IL
Strongly resembling the Harry Bertoia Foundation's archived c.1947 unsigned small brooch (D.JE.27) that is essentially an elegant hammered silver curvilinear three-humped squiggle by...
Category
Early 20th Century American Modern Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Sterling Silver
$3,780 Sale Price
50% Off
16thCentury Renaissance Ultramarine Angel GiltFiligree Crystal Medallion Pendant
Located in Chicago, IL
With artistic value as a Renaissance chiaroscuro miniature painting with precious ultramarine lapis-lazuli pigment, this early 16th-Century period gilt-filigree silver pendant medall...
Category
16th Century Italian Renaissance Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Silver, Enamel, Copper, Gold
Louis Rousselet ArtDeco Glass FloralLampwork BlackBeaded SilverToggle Necklace
By Louis Rousselet
Located in Chicago, IL
With a distinct silver twisted toggle clasp and multiple kinds of nubby rondelles dating to the late 1920s, Parisian parurier Louis Rousselet's workshop handcrafted this glass beaded...
Category
1920s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver, Sterling Silver
Couture Fruit HandPainted WoodCherries RedGreenCharms ChainLink Vintage Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
This vintage cherry-fruit charm necklace featuring red hand-painted wood is constructed of silver chain links and its clasp extension-chain is decorated with a single red bead. The green leaves that trim the berry beads are a surprising two-tone plastic, indicating that they were also handcrafted.
Notably, the fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli is famous for including custom plastic elements in her mostly unsigned jewelry that accompanied her couture collections in the late 1930s.
Please see TheMet online archive to view Schiaparelli's most well-known couture necklace structured from plastic supporting metal insects...
Category
20th Century Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver, Silver Plate, Gilt Metal
Couture Chanel Late1920s MadeInFrance WiredPearl&LampworkGlass Clip Earrings
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Marked "Made In France" on their antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry commissioned by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel since 1924, these beaded early-handcrafted-clip earrings are arranged with wire in a floral motif featuring button-like mother-of-pearls accented by smaller balls of lampwork glass with an ecru organic coating that mimics pearl nacre. The pair were designed to accessorize a one-of-a-kind clothing ensemble (likely including cultured-pearl buttons and a brooch) for a client of the pearl-associated French couturier whose earliest jewelry--unlike her fashion-designer peers--sometimes mixed real and faux gems.
The glass artistry, clustered arrangement and earring findings are characteristic of one of her Parisian paruriers, Louis Rousselet. He was a lampwork master with a workshop since 1920 specializing in faux-pearl glass beads and wire-work assembly, along with other decorative elements. Since the three-piece flat-brass lever clips without hinge-holes on both sides predate Rousselet's wire-horseshoe clips, they can be dated like the patinated brass hardware to the mid1920s.
The beads of various sizes and shades of white that are wired to these earrings include four round graduating iridescent mother-of-pearl disks, along with lampwork glass replicating four baroque pearls, three round pearls and two seed pearls. There are natural impurities present on the green-and-pink-reflecting cultured pearls, while we can clean dust from the coated-glass crevices upon request.
Of note, Chanel did not include a brand signature on any of her couture costume jewelry prior to the mid-1950s. As many of her clients who came to Paris for their couture-clothing fittings were foreign, the coordinated unique jewelry that was expected to leave the country was merely stamped "Made In France" or "France". We acquired these earrings in The States along with similar pair with additional but smaller "petals, berries and leaves" from the same Rousselet commission.
Further, Art Deco couture...
Category
1920s French Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Cultured Pearl, Brass
1950sRobertGoosensStyle CastOakLeaf Talisman BaroqueFauxPearls GoldChain Sautoir
Located in Chicago, IL
While contracted as an independent craftsman to create one-of-a-kind costume jewelry for French Masion Degorce from 1953 until it closed in 1957, Parisian goldsmith Robert Goosens (1927-2016) was initially commissioned by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel to craft one-of-a-kind Byzantine-style long decorative-chain necklaces with sculptural gilt-metal or faux-pearl charms, while she intended to layer many of them to accessorize her couture clothing for clients and herself.
Relevant to the unclear designer of our vintage nine-pendant ribbed-chain sautoir with an unsigned gold-gilt silver barrel clasp and five unique kinds of intricately textured vermeil and baroque faux-pearl charms, a similar lost-wax-cast center pendant with three-lobed-foliate prongs also in the shape of oak leaves can be seen in the book (p.28), Bijoux de Haute Couture: Collection Robert Goossens, by Gilles Plazy and Chantal Bizot published in Paris in 2000. The same year, that Chanel-signed pendant necklace was auctioned by Christie's in a lot including an unsigned long chain sautoir attributed to Chanel. Further, another 1stDibs dealer currently has a $12,500 listing for an unsigned but book-published early-1950s faux-pearl sautoir for Chanel that also features intricate pinecone talismans like ours, but decorated with poured glass and crystals crafted by Maison Gripoix.
When Chanel relaunched her post-war business ventures, Goosens soon became her favorite parurier before founding his eponymous Maison Goosens, whose venerable workshop later designed metal work for its own jewelry-and-furnishings brand Goosens Paris.
Notably, Chanel did not add a brand signature to costume jewelry until the late 1950s, while some pieces prior to this by multiple paruriers are documented to lack any identification that Chanel was earlier known to stamp such as "France", "Made In France" and/or "Depose". Recently, a similar unsigned/unmarked longer chain sautoir with fewer filigree-and-pearl pendants that was believed to be by Robert Goosens for Chanel...
Category
1950s French Byzantine Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Silver, Vermeil
Antique French ArtNouveau MuchaMajorelleGruberStyle SignedNancyGlass SilveredBox
By Daum
Located in Chicago, IL
Influenced by the Art Nouveau illustrations of Alphonse Mucha, this antique French jewelry box display case is decorated with silvered bronze or ...
Category
1890s French Art Nouveau Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gilt Metal, Mixed Metal, Silver Plate, Brass, Bronze
KJL 1980s MuseumCollectedDesigner TwoStrandResin Boxed MidnightRose Necklace
By Kenneth Jay Lane
Located in Chicago, IL
Kenneth Jay Lane--whose monogram KJL is signed on the white-rose-decorated gold-tone clasp of this double-strand black-resin beaded necklace--is only one of four bylined jewelry designers collected by The Brooklyn Museum Costume Collection At The Metropolitan Museum of Art from the two-decade period between 1970-1989, which was dominated by such bold big shapes in mostly black, white and gold.
A must for any collector of the world-renowned American-founded beauty-brand Avon, its rare limited-edition retailed necklace by Lane titled "Midnight Rose" is among the most distinctive that it produced among its lines of primarily perfume, cosmetics, and personal-care products whose origin dates back to 1886 in New York. Notably, the life-sized shiny cast-acrylic rose has the look of a far more expensive carved stone, such as one cut and polished from light-filled saturated-white chalcedony, which is a hard semi-precious stone favored by Lane.
Like Lane's own line when it was originally signed KJL, the decorated clasp is uniquely designed. It locks underneath with a semi-circular hinge, which enables the stylized three-dimensional smooth rose to be perfectly positioned on the right side of the upper chest with the bud facing upwards above its three-leaf sepal in contrasting gilt textured metal. This position adds sparkle from above to the three pave rhinestones in a gold-tone setting at center of the rose, as if its dew-covered bud was beginning to open in strong moonlight. To balance the bold rose shape, the black strands cross each other below at a single point, which adds another eye-catching element to the concealed-string-tied necklace.
In mint condition with no sign of wear, the necklace was acquired in its original lavender Avon retail box. In contrast, the paper shows wear and tear from handling, while still featuring the jewelry designer's full-name script signature, title, and text details like how to care for this synthetic jewelry. The metal-stamped hallmark is "KJL for Avon...
Category
1980s American Contemporary Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gilt Metal
Couture 1939-50Schiaparelli-SchlumbergerPeriod GlassBeads ProngSetCrystal Brooch
By Artisan NYC
Located in Chicago, IL
In the style of Elsa Schiaparelli couture costume-jewelry and one of her paruriers since the late 1930s, Jean Schlumberger, this handcrafted highly-textural glass-and-crystal rhodium...
Category
1940s American Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Pearl, Silver, Rhodium
MiriamHaskell c1930 Hess GoldGiltChain CappedAquaGlass ThumblessClasp Bib Choker
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Around 1930, Miriam Haskell's first designer Frank Hess designed this Russian-gilt brass ribbed-chain link bib necklace featuring 27 strands of varying length each wired to aqua faux-turquoise pressed glass beads with characteristic gold pronged-bell caps and thumbless spring-ring clasp. After the Great Depression began in the United States in 1929, to keep her popular European-style costume jewelry affordable among fashionable ladies, Haskell began using less expensive imported handcrafted glass beads, which included Czech and German pressed glass. Initially when she opened her handmade ready-to-wear costume-jewelry business in 1926 in New York City's downtown McAlpin Hotel, she had used only the finest Parisian glass beads and findings like French couturiers including Coco Chanel who soon became her competition. which Haskell promoted with the French name of her first boutique Le Bijou de L'Heure.
If interested in assembling a suitable set of early Haskell-Hess pieces with similar aesthetics, please see our other listings for the aqua glass-and-enamel scalloped button clip earrings and the "peacock" coil arm-band bracelet with Parisian lampworked glass, faceted crystal, painted galalith beads, and cupped rose...
Category
1930s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Turquoise, 24k Gold, Yellow Gold, Brass, Gilt Metal
AncientRevival Gold MotifRondelles Carnelian Beads Knotted BlackSilk Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring yellow-gold sinuous-pattern rondelles and carnelian rock-crystal round 8mm beads, this ancient-revival heavy necklace is knotted in stations a...
Category
19th Century American Early Victorian Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Carnelian, 14k Gold, Gold-filled, Gold
Trifari Philippe1940s JellyBelly & PearlFlowers GoldPendants SignedChainNecklace
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
Among the most in-demand designs by Trifari artistic director Alfred Philippe were his flora and "jelly belly" fauna jewelry from the 1940s. Both iconic styles can be mixed as the go...
Category
1940s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Gold, Vermeil, Yellow Gold
Couture 1937-40 ElsaSchiaparelli MarcelVertes HarlequinDuck GlazedCeramic Brooch
By Elsa Schiaparelli
Located in Chicago, IL
Between the first ad campaign that legendary fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973) commissioned from internationally-admired Paris-based Hungarian-born multimedia artist Marcel Vertes (1895-1961) for her blockbuster perfume "Shocking" in 1937 and in 1940 when they left France after launching her perfume "Sleeping" shortly before the Nazi occupation during WWII, the illustrator-cum-ceramist distinctly handmade-- while traditional materials for couture costume-jewelry were scarce in Paris--this whimsical red glazed ceramic brooch depicting a duck holding a "wet" umbrella dripped with dashes of turquoise or black glaze.
Significantly, the trombone clasp of the brooch pin, the long-pronged gilt frame, and the text stamped on its back plate "Made In France" match a similarly sized glazed-ceramic brooch of a decoratively-chained bear that was published in the book Bijoux (page 146). The author Deanna Farenti Cera dated that likewise unbranded unsigned brooch to 1938 when it was commissioned for one of Schiaparelli's fashion shows themed "Circus". The invitation to that show, which was illustrated with circus characters and performing animals by Vertes' Parisian peer Christian Berard, included a domesticated white duck--notably not holding nor wearing a fashion accessory.
Unusually, Schiaparelli had commissioned couture umbrellas from other artisans in the 1930s--a couple of which were acquired by TheMet museum. Another relevant Met acquisition of the designer's couture evening gown, which it dates to Summer 1940, features three large glazed-ceramic fasteners in a contrasting color matching our brooch.
The like findings, materials, construction, text, object, and palette aside, accessory-adorned ducks were also among the figurative animals commissioned by Schiaparelli for that last collection before the Germans dominated Paris by June 1940, which is evidenced by the photo of the dated gilt hatpin depicting a bejeweled head with a bill that appears in the book by Patrick Mauries about another Schiaparelli-associated French parurier Lina Baretti (pages 124-125). See our other listing for one of Baretti's uniquely feathered designs, which likewise has a pronged gilt frame with trombone clasp like ours, but whose partridge subject best suits an earlier Schiaparelli collection for Fall 1938 titled "Pagan".
For us, distinguishing our brooch from other one-of-a-kind ceramic pieces created for Schiaparelli couture...
Category
1930s French Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gold, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Schiaparelli Signed MidCentury LeavesMotif Austrian Crystals Gilt Link Bracelet
By Schiaparelli
Located in Chicago, IL
Signed "Schiaparelli" in script, this mid-century link bracelet features a textural-leaves motif characteristic of costume jewelry by the Parisian couturier Elsa Schiaparelli. Like m...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Post-War Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Yellow Gold, Base Metal, Gilt Metal
Couture Chanel Late1920s MadeInFrance WiredPearlLampworkGlass BrassClip Earrings
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Stamped "Made In France" on their antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry commissioned by French Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel beginning in 1924, these floral-motif wired earrings with early handcrafted brass flat ear-clips are decorated with button-like cultured mother-of-pearl disks mixed with Parisian organically-coated lampwork glass, which we photographed in indoor sunlight for the most accurate iridescent ecru colors. The pair were designed by Chanel to accessorize a one-of-a-kind clothing ensemble (likely including cultured-pearl buttons) for a client of this pearl-associated couturier whose earliest one-of-a-kind jewelry such as pieces for herself--unlike other 1920s fashion designers--sometimes mixed real and faux gems.
The intricate glass artistry, wired cluster arrangement and earring findings are characteristic of one of Chanel's first Parisian paruriers, Louis Rousselet. He was a lampwork master with a workshop since 1920 that became recognized for faux-pearl glass beads and wire-work construction. As the three-piece flat-brass lever clips without hinge-holes on both sides predate Rousselet's wire-horseshoe clips, they can be dated like the patinated brass hardware to the mid-1920s.
The beads of various sizes and ecru colors that are wired to each earring include five round flat graduating iridescent mother-of-pearls, along with lampwork glass replicating nine baroque pearls, five round pearls and two seed pearls. There are natural imperfections on the green-and-rose-reflecting cultured pearls, while there is some nacre-enamel loss on the glass beads that is not eye visible. On closer view, one of the central round glass beads has a lighter blister, which appears like the texture of some uncultured pearls.
Of note, Chanel did not include a brand signature on any of her couture costume jewelry prior to the mid-1950s. As many of her clients who came to Paris for their couture-clothing fittings were foreign, the coordinated unique jewelry that was expected to leave the country was merely stamped "Made In France" or "France".
We acquired these earrings in The States along with a similar set with fewer but larger "petals, berries and leaves", which we priced the same in a different listing despite the slightly greater size and weight of this pair. So we know that they both were created for a single commission of multiple unique earrings with like lampwork-glass shapes and findings to be paired with the button-like mother-of-pearls provided by Chanel. While we have acquired over a dozen pre-signature pieces commissioned by the founder, these are the earliest earrings that we have discovered by Chanel. We have never found a single match to contradict our recognition of her early couture creations nor to attribute them to another designer.
Further, Art Deco couture...
Category
1920s French Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Cultured Pearl, Brass
ArtDeco Coro 1919 "PatPend" Lady Bug Enamel FauxGem Vermeil Brooch
By Coro
Located in Chicago, IL
With the Coro signature "script-no-angle" since 1919 and "PAT.PEND.", this early Art Deco vermeil lady-bug beetle brooch features a red enameled face and mixed-cut bezel-set red and ...
Category
Early 20th Century American Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Blue Sapphire, Ruby, Crystal, Vermeil, Gilt Metal, Enamel, Gold
Trifari 1970s Necklace and Chandelier Earrings
Located in Alford, MA
c.1960s-'70s Trifari necklace and earrings set, the necklace comprised of three gold chains, the shortest of which features a large pendant with free-...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
ArtDeco 491 ProngSetCrystals SchreinerStyle SilverSolder 35" Belt ChokerNecklace
Located in Chicago, IL
With settings and construction like Art-Deco-period unsigned crystal costume-jewelry by Bavarian-born blacksmith Henry Schreiner (1898-1954), this mid-century unsigned silver-soldere...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Silver, Base Metal
MiriamHaskell WWII Era GoldGilt Filigree Cast Butterfly FrankHess Pre1945 Brooch
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
A child of the Art-Nouveau period, Miriam Haskell loved its butterfly design-motifs, which are found in many pieces of costume jewelry by her first designer Frank Hess. His butterfly...
Category
1940s American Art Nouveau Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Base Metal
Grosse 1960s Brooch with Pearls
Located in Alford, MA
Grosse brooch from 1968 composed of an open network of crownlike elements, each point terminating in a textured drop, and each circular grouping centerin...
Category
Mid-20th Century German Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
MiriamHaskell 1945 PeacockBeads Parure Wired Bracelet Earrings 16Strand Necklace
By Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Miriam Haskell's first designer Frank Hess--before 1947, when the brand mark was added and while couture-style adjustable-hook necklaces were in demand in post-war America--produced ...
Category
1940s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Pearl, Gold, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
Couture 1920s Chanel Rousselet Hearts Camellia Metallic Glass Bracelet & Sautoir
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel's earliest fashion motifs of camellias, hearts, and topaz are combined in this Art-Deco period tightly silk-strung metallic-glass couture set of a mixed-bead ...
Category
1930s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gold-filled, Yellow Gold, Silver, Brass, Copper
ArtNouveau PinkQueenConch Chatoyance 14mm Round Antique Sterling Clip Earrings
Located in Chicago, IL
These natural pink Queen conch pearl 14MM near-round stud earrings with antique screw-back clips stamped "sterling" each weigh 3 grams, for a more than 10 carat weight total as much ...
Category
Early 20th Century North American Art Nouveau Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Sterling Silver
Couture 1936-49 Schiaparelli-Dali-Style Set FauxSapphire&Pearl Earrings & Brooch
Located in Chicago, IL
This handcrafted faux-sapphire-topped-pearl cluster brooch and clip-earrings set dates to around WWII, when fashion designer Elsa Schiaparelli (18...
Category
1940s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Pearl, Sapphire, Mixed Metal
Couture 1930s CocoChanel Lina Baretti SatinBlackCamellias PaveCrystals Gold Set
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
This rare signed couture set of pave-crystal and gold-plated brooch and earrings from the Art-Deco period is marked in the manner of one-off costume jewelry commissioned...
Category
1930s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Gold, Gold Plate, Silver
Couture 1930s Bucherer Depose ArtDeco 18kGold 40StoneTrimmedWatch TennisBracelet
By Bucherer
Located in Chicago, IL
Trimmed with 40 rose-cut diamond-like stones and marked "deposee" on the Swiss clasp like antique European couture jewelry, this Art-Deco period unique Bucherer luxury snake-chain dr...
Category
1930s Swiss Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Platinum, 18k Gold, Stainless Steel, White Gold, Mixed Metal
Couture Antique Chanel Late1920s France Rousselet Lampwork Glass Floral Earrings
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Marked "Made In France" on their antique brass back-plates like the initial unbranded couture costume-jewelry commissioned by Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel since 1924, these early-handcraf...
Category
1920s French Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass
18thC EnamelDoublePainting SilverFiligree SpanishRococo AprilBirthday Pendant
Located in Chicago, IL
This early 18th-Century Spanish Rococo period silver-filigree double-sided pendant with dangle features miniature colorful enamel devotional paintings on both sides of a white porcelain centerpiece, which are associated with an April birth.
One side depicts a mountain landscape with a haloed richly-robed dark woman holding a lap-seated dark child and a holy orb...
Category
Early 18th Century Spanish Rococo Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver, Enamel
MiriamHaskell 1926-39 Enamel GiltFiligree Scallop BrassClip ArtDeco AquaEarrings
By Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
During the Art-Deco period, Miriam Haskell and her first designer since 1926 Frank Hess created these blue-tone enameled scallop-edged Russian-gilt brass earrings with intricate wire...
Category
Early 20th Century American Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Turquoise, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal, Enamel, Brass, Gold
$908 Sale Price / set
60% Off
Trifari 1930s Philippe YellowGold HeavyChain Tassel Sautoir Textural Demi Parure
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
Signed "Trifari" with a crown and without a post-1955 U.S.-copyright symbol on all three matching pieces, this likely late-1930s highly-textured yellow-gold-plated demi-parure was designed by American Trifari's French-born head designer Alfred Philippe after he had honed his fine-jewelry craftsmanship while creating luxury parures for Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels. The set features a heavy tasseled eight-strand chain sautoir necklace and earrings with dropped fluted-ball pendants,
With French-style signed clip fastening, the contrasting-texture two-inch-long earrings each have two twisted fluted round beads in different sizes, with the larger one capped at both ends with additional shapes and textures.
On the necklace, this textural contrast is amplified with the inclusion of many chains. The decorative chain caps and...
Category
1930s American Baroque Revival Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gold, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Schreiner NY 1950s 22 ProngSet Crystals AB & PiecrustSetPaleYellow Clip Earrings
By Henry Schreiner
Located in Chicago, IL
In 1956 when Christian Dior's ultra-feminine New Look had dominated fashion for nearly a decade, Schreiner New York handcrafted these opulent unsigned earrings with 22 prong-set open-back crystals to accompany the eveningwear of an American high-end fashion designer. They may have been for client Pauline Trigere when her ready-to-wear collections with accessories including unmarked-Schreiner jewelry were sold by NYC's Bergdorf Goodman and worn by her clients including Grace Kelly, Jacqueline Kennedy, and Elizabeth Taylor. Comparatively, Schreiner jewelry produced in the 1950s for direct sale to high-end department stores, such as Neiman Marcus, Henri Bendel and Saks Fifth Avenue, were the only pieces to include a brand signature.
Using the best quality European crystals that were custom-made for him, the founder Henry Schreiner was among the world's leading glass-jewelry designers before he died in 1954, whereafter his daughter and her husband continued with their handcrafted production. The family shared this distinction with Western Germany-based Max Muller and Paris-based Roger Jean Pierre, who were commissioned to create haute-couture pieces for the world's leading fashion houses. Notably in 1949, Henry Schreiner was commissioned by Dior to create several exclusive pieces.
We know these earrings were not created earlier than 1956 because of the use of iridescent coating on some of the crystals that produces a rainbow effect. Known as aurora-borealis (AB) stones, Swarovski initially produced them exclusively for a haute-couture collection that year by Dior. Shortly thereafter, the Schreiner team had access to such colorful stones, and most certainly used them as soon as possible to enable their American fashion-designer clients to compete with the new Dior iridescent-colors trend.
At the bottom tips of the marquise-shaped pale yellow stones...
Category
1950s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Yellow Gold, Gilt Metal
Line Vautrin Set Enamel Carved Resin Edelweiss Brass Clip Earrings & Brooch
By Line Vautrin
Located in Chicago, IL
Line Vautrin created "flame-radiating" resin mirrors in mid-century that are very similar to this sculptural resin edelweiss-flower set of highly-textural, hand-carved and enameled c...
Category
Early 20th Century French Artist Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass, Enamel
Couture 1930s ElsaSchiaparelliStyle FuchsiaFauxRubyGoldGlassBeads Tassel Sautoir
Located in Chicago, IL
Elsa Schiaparelli famously embraced "shocking pink" for her Surrealist-aesthetic couture clothing and handcrafted costume jewelry, which she commissioned from Parisian paruriers beginning in the late 1920s--when some of the most expensive gems were fuchsia Burmese rubies. In this antique glass-beaded sautoir tassel necklace, 37 unusual fuchsia faux-pearls are each delicately caged like hot-air balloons by seven textural strands of faux-pearl-and-gold seed beads. These spherical stations are spaced by lustrous white medium-size faux pearls, ending in a four-strand seed-bead tassel that cages four of the fuchsia beads. The beads are strung on bright magenta silk cord without a clasp.
Sautoirs were an essential element of flapper style since Schiaparelli's couture-mentor Paul Poiret changed the silhouette of clothing in the 1920s, while the long necklaces remained popular until wartime 1939.
To compete with her rival couturier Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel, Schiaparelli (1890-1973) relied on the same French glassmakers, Maison Gripoix and Louis Rousselet--the masters of faux pearls at the time who added organic-ingredient coatings to their handmade glass beads. Either glass workshop that was established by the 1920s could have been commissioned to make the progressive hot-pink pearls for this unsigned necklace that dates to the Art-Deco period.
The design of this highly-textural tricolor sautoir featuring fuchsia spheres could suit the style of one of Schiaparelli's most frequent paruriers through the 1930s, Jean Clement. Some of his relevant unsigned work for Schiaparelli is in museum collections like The Met, including highly-textural tricolor sphere-decorated buttons/brooches and a fuchsia-toned metal-rosebud bead necklace.
After Schiaparelli had become associated with fuchsia, she made particularly prolific use of this bright magenta in the late 1930s. In her demi-couture collections such as "Circus" and "Comedia del' Arte" (see our 3 photos), fuchsia jackets are adorned with similar colorful spherical glass beads among embroidered appliques and animal/clown brooches, as well as whimsical painted-ceramic buttons...
Category
1930s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Pearl, Gold
MiriamHaskell 1945 CrystalRoseMontee GiltFiligree Glass Enameled ClimberEarrings
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
Two years before the brand signature first appeared in 1947, Miriam Haskell's first designer Frank Hess since 1926 designed these asymmetrical Baroque-style climber earrings that fea...
Category
1940s American Art Nouveau Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Pearl, Gold, Enamel, Gilt Metal
$1,245 Sale Price / set
50% Off
Renaissance FleurDeLis Niello HighRelief GiltEngraved Heraldry Reliquary Jewelry
Located in Chicago, IL
Demonstrating the epitome of miniature decorative art by Renaissance European goldsmiths who fashioned quatrefoil and/or cruciform jewelry with heraldry or religious symbols, this ce...
Category
16th Century European Renaissance Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gilt Metal, Niello, Silver, Copper
Schreiner 1950s ProngSet UniqueGreen ABCrystals PaveCrystalLeaves Silver Brooch
By Schreiner of New York
Located in Chicago, IL
This colorful prong-set crystal spray brooch by Schreiner New York was made to compliment luxury clothing by a U.S.-based fashion designer, such as Pauline Trigere, in the late 1950s. This piece is special because it shows the unique decorative technique that Schreiner used for a period of several years in reaction to the limited availability of the first aurora-borealis (AB) stones by Swarovski in 1956, which had been designed for Christian Dior.
In response to the availability of only the initial AB color that mostly reflected bright blue and the high demand from other designers, Schreiner's creative family soon applied transparent glass paint to create additional colors, such as the light-green painted AB crystals on this brooch. According to Henry Schreiner's late daughter who took over the business with her jewelry-designer husband, this enabled them to become the first to produce costume jewelry with AB stones in different colors, while Swarovski took several years to introduce similar colors.
All original painted AB crystals are intact in this brooch, which is significant since a lost stone...
Category
1950s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Silver, Brass
Cat'sEye 21 BallCut Moonstones Antique Victorian 14KGoldFill TubularLinkNecklace
Located in Chicago, IL
All featuring white cat's-eyes, the 21 gray 3mm ball-cut moonstones of this necklace are beaded symmetrically on this antique choker between stations of shiny 14-karat gold-filled tu...
Category
Late 19th Century American Arts and Crafts Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Moonstone, Cat’s Eye, 14k Gold, Gold-filled
Vintage DoubleSpiral Twisted Silver Wire Filigree Link Choker Collar Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Featuring handmade double-spiral filigree links, this vintage collar choker necklace was created by tightly twisting fine silver wire, which was ...
Category
20th Century Greek Revival Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver
Trifari AlfredPhilippe 1948-1954 RhodiumPlated Tassel Chain FrenchClip Earrings
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
These mid-century platinum-like silver tassel chain drop earrings were designed by Trifari artistic director Alfred Philippe in an Art Deco style that recalls his earlier work for Ca...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Rhodium, Silver, Base Metal
$675 Sale Price / set
55% Off
Couture S/S1956 SignedDiorDesigner First AB Crystals Western Germany Earrings
By Christian Dior
Located in Chicago, IL
Distinguishing these couture Christian Dior Spring/Summer 1956 "Western Germany"-stamped silver earrings featuring the first Swarovski gold-foi...
Category
1950s German Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Silver, Base Metal
Antique ArtNouveau Tourmaline Gems & Lampwork Glass WhiteGold Filigree Sautoir
Located in Chicago, IL
Epitomizing the Art Nouveau movement, this antique post-1912 sautoir drop necklace with a white-gold openwork-and-wire pendant and filigree clasp features a rainbow of handcrafted gem beads--the largest of which are carved "Rose of France" and purple amethysts plus faceted-pink and beveled-aqua tourmalines--along with what appears to be lampwork glass...
Category
Early 20th Century Unknown Art Nouveau Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Amethyst, Tourmaline, White Gold, Enamel, Rhodium, Gilt Metal
Couture Depose France Set PouredGlass Earrings & LampworkGlass 2Strand Necklace
By Chanel
Located in Chicago, IL
Since 1920, French costume-jewelry glass-master Louis Rousselet was among a handful of paruriers favored by the leading Parisian couture houses, primarily Chanel. Beyond the stamped ...
Category
1920s French Artisan Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Amber, Citrine, Topaz, Moonstone, Pearl, Silver, Brass, Gilt Metal, Gold
Vendome Green/Blue Crystal Semi Parure
By Vendome
Located in Alford, MA
Vendome brooch and earrings set, the brooch of star shape consisting of large pear-shaped green crystals interspersed with sapphire blue round crystals ...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal
$425 / set
Trifari 1930s Alfred Philippe ArtDeco GreenGoldGlass MicroBead 20Strand Necklace
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
On this Art-Deco period glass micro-bead 20-strand necklace, the yellow-gold-plated clasp is stamped with a crown-topped Trifari signature without a U.S.-copyright symbol, which Indi...
Category
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Gold, Yellow Gold, Base Metal, Gold Plate
$875 Sale Price
30% Off
Couture RobertGoosens 1969-1971 MadameGres RockCrystal Stone HammeredWire Choker
By Robert Goossens
Located in Chicago, IL
Robert Goosens, the French haute-couture Chanel-favorite parurier who enjoyed reinterpreting ancient and antique styles of jewelry with rock crystal and faux stones, also collaborated with Madame Alix Gres. Relevant to this statement necklace, the Parisian theatrical-costume designer, who founded the French fashion-house Maison Gres, commissioned Goosens to make spiral-wire adornments for her couture gowns. This handmade hammered brass wire choker necklace with five dropped en-tremblant pendants is decorated with unique colorful beads and wrapped wire. The piece dates between 1969-1971 based on similar unsigned spiraled-wire metal jewelry without goldsmithing marks in the museum collection of TheMet (see our photo), which acquired it from Maison Givenchy founder Hubert de Givenchy, who was one of most supportive fans of Gres.
Like the legendary sculptural clothing designs of Madame Gres, this necklace was inspired by Greco-Roman costumes, while its sculpted shapes by Goosens reference her signature curvilinear fabric techniques that earned her the sobriquet of "the master of the wrapped and draped dress". Goosens (1927-2016), nicknamed Monsieur Bijou, also made jewelry inspired by other periods of antiquity to compliment the couture clothing of Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga, Elsa Schiaparelli, Christian Dior, and Yves Saint Laurent. After Goosens collaborated with Gres, he revisited golden spiral designs with Saint Laurent.
Similar to the free-flowing fabric manipulated in Gres gowns, this hand-shaped necklace that we photographed in sunlight is a study in motion that drapes across a curvy cleavage. Adding drama to this necklace below its wire choker, the top teetering-wire pendant is a twisted and hammered horizontal double spiral, which is a Hellenistic symbol of life and transformation suggesting the breasts of a goddess of fertility and motherhood. Yet distinctly Goosens, 18 hand-cut and hand-dyed "ancient-Roman-blue" rock-crystal beads are wire-strung to weight a second tier of two separate vertical double-spiral pendants. On each, a wrapped-wire tube divides the blue beads. Between these vertical pendants in two tiers, the central vertical pendants each feature a one-of-a-kind multicolor bead (yellow/blue/red/black/white) in two lengths with abstract organic patterns recalling ancient Italian glasswork. Four more blue beads bracket these larger colorful beads. An additional 10 blue beads and 5 wire tubes decorate the bottom looped wire pendant, as well as the bottom of the wire choker.
Like the hammered-wire jewelry designs of modern artist Alexander Calder, the creative complex construction of this necklace surprisingly required no metalsmith techniques, such as soldering or casting, just great skill with a jewelry pliers and hammer.
For a bigger picture of couture clothing by Madame Gres during the decade beginning in 1969, she notably designed many museum-collected one-color silk-taffeta draped long gowns with empire waists and simple high collars or geometric cut-outs. Remarkably, the focal points for some of these unique dresses were at the wrists, from where long pouf sleeves voluminously droop around the hands to nearly the floor like two enormous long-petaled flowers. If paired with this equally downward-focused and balanced necklace from this same period, its bold Greco-Roman elements would have pulled a viewer's gaze of the dress from floor to face.
Although there is no significant provenance for this necklace, hammered brass and tinted rock crystal were among the few materials repeatedly associated with Goosens from 1969-71. For example, in his overlapping interior-decor collections based on themes of waterlilies or foliage, Goosens hammered gilt brass wire and sheets (see our closeup photo) to represent plant parts or he wired rock-crystal beads to appear as tiny fruits. While the two multicolor glass or resin beads in this necklace are atypical, the combination of blue, yellow and red is a palette that the designer used for other pieces of rock-crystal jewelry and he created many kinds of multicolor faux stones with glass or resin paste, such as faux Tibetan turquoise including black and white. According to journalism based on interviews with Goosens, he often acquired unusual stones and glass for inspiration during his extensive travels exploring museum-collected antiquities.
Since Maison Goosens was acquired in 2005 by Maison Chanel, it opened the Parisian showroom Galerie Goosens and associated shops to sell many kinds of reproductions and reimagined works by the founder, which fortunately does not suit the completely handmade elements of this necklace. So this couture piece remains one-of-a-kind. If desiring a vintage haute-couture original by Robert Goosens, we recommend perusing the Maison Goosens website so that a reproduction with a contemporary signature is not mistakenly purchased.
Madame Gres (1903-1993) was born Germaine Emelie Krebs, but initially identified her fashion designs with the pseudonym Alix and later Alix Barton...
Category
Mid-20th Century French Greek Revival Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Rock Crystal, Crystal, Brass
$3,156 Sale Price
60% Off
Antique ArtDeco Meets BelleEpoque WWI WhiteGold Openwork Link Choker Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
Victorian Belle-Epoque and Edwardian styles transitioned to Art-Deco period jewelry with semi-precious materials and machine-age shapes around WWI when this unique 20-link choker nec...
Category
Early 20th Century American Belle Époque Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
White Gold
Art Nouveau Azurmalachite MilapillasMine Cabochon MexicanSilver Ring
Located in Chicago, IL
First appearing like an intense green-blue black opal without the flash, this antique natural azurmalachite oval-cut 10mm cabochon in a bezel setting f...
Category
Early 1900s Mexican Art Nouveau Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Malachite, Sterling Silver
$2,394 Sale Price
60% Off
MidCentury SculpturalTexturedGoldBowClasp Graduated4Strand Snake Chain Necklace
Located in Chicago, IL
This mid-century shiny yellow-gold-plated snake-chain multi-strand necklace features a sculptural finely-textured gilt-metal bow that is positioned to rest on the upper left chest to...
Category
1940s American Modern Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Yellow Gold, Gold Plate, Base Metal, Gilt Metal
Trifari 1940s Philippe 4PieceParure CrystalFloraMotif GoldNecklaceEarringsBrooch
By Alfred Philippe for Trifari
Located in Chicago, IL
In the late 1940s, Trifari French-born artistic director Alfred Philippe, who had earlier created fine jewelry for Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, designed this flora-motif crystal-s...
Category
Mid-20th Century American Art Deco Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal, Diamond, Gold, Gold Plate, Yellow Gold
Antique ProngSetWhiteJade GoldMilgrainFiligree ConvertibleBrooch Ring Pendant
Located in Chicago, IL
Known as "mutton fat", this natural milky white tremolite nephrite jade 10mm-long hand-carved oval cabochon is prong set on an antique Edwardian-period convertible tiny brooch...
Category
Early 20th Century Chinese Art Nouveau Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Jade, Gilt Metal, White Gold
$2,220 Sale Price
60% Off
16thCentury Renaissance Silver Repousse Lovers Pendant Or Engagement Hat Badge
Located in Chicago, IL
This early 16th-Century Renaissance silver-repousse round medallion "lovers" pendant depicts a romantic encounter in a rural landscape between a man and smiling woman wearing Europea...
Category
16th Century French Renaissance Antique Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Silver, Gilt Metal
YBA YoungBritishArtist Sculpture Jewelry Costume First US Exhibit NYC 2000-2001
By Contemporary
Located in Chicago, IL
Young British artist (YBA) Philippe Bradshaw (1965-2005) was represented by blue-chip international art galleries when he was the first to reimagine iconic-art images as tapestry-like metal-chain installations in evolving multimedia environments. He is best known for transforming hand-assembled colorful anodized-aluminum links into shimmering semi-transparent layered curtains, whose hanging metallic strands uniquely dispersed the light of his camcorder-video projections and the club-house music from records that he deejayed.
In Bradshaw's first American exhibition "Disco Damage" in 2001 at New York City's legendary avant-garde art gallery, Deitch Projects, this jewelry-costume sculpture became part of the artist's live-in evolving studio installation. While later celebrating 15 years of art happenings that had occurred at that Soho exhibition space, its gallerist-cum-museum-director Jeffrey Deitch--who was physically scarred during this unforgettable chaotic several-month experience orchestrated by Bradshaw--recounted this show in his retrospective hardcover book "Live The Art".
When Bradshaw drowned in the Parisian-river Seine in August 2005 while living the high life of his skyrocketing success in Europe, he left a small body of large installations that is mostly distributed among the world's top private art collections. Notably, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles has acquired one of his multimedia works. More recently, another assembly of his chain curtains made a rare public appearance at new modern-art museum, Heidi Horten Collection, during its inaugural exhibition in Vienna.
Since winning a major British visual-art prize in 2000 that marked Bradshaw's art-world ascent following fellow Goldsmiths-College YBAs who were close friends, this sculpture evolved from one of his most elaborate jewelry costumes that he created in London while seducing the American who became his girlfriend. Unlike other pieces of jewelry that he made as gifts to participating acquaintances while video taping...
Category
Early 2000s British Contemporary Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Mixed Metal
MiriamHaskell 1930s Torsade Set GiltFiligreeCapped FauxPearls Earrings & Choker
By Frank Hess for Miriam Haskell
Located in Chicago, IL
During the Art Deco period, Miriam Haskell's first designer Frank Hess designed this blue-and-white glass-beaded hand-sewn torsade set of dangle earrings and a choker necklace, whose knotted string is capped with their characteristic Russian-gilt brass flora filigree. Coinciding with the American Great Depression, to offer some less expensive costume jewelry than her initial ready-to-wear styles featuring Parisian hand-crafted materials found in French couture, Haskell reduced the cost of some of her findings by locally sourcing stamped metal and incorporating hand-pressed glass beads from Germany and Czechoslovakia.
With a loop, the line from hand pressing the glass can only be found on the blue beads, while the white ones are coated in an organic material like authentic French faux pearls. The ends of the textured cords that string the beaded set were frayed to form a fuzzy opaque dome that hides the knots attached to the filigree caps.
No Haskell jewelry was signed before 1947. The unsigned necklace...
Category
1930s American Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Brass, Gilt Metal, Yellow Gold
DaumNancyFrance ArtDeco Signed Glass Applications LeadCrystal Sculptural Vase
By Daum
Located in Chicago, IL
Art glass vase sign: Daum Nancy France. Evidenced by this Daum sculptural colorless blown and hot-shaped lead-crystal heavy vessel vase, the finest irreproducible artistic works in the history of the iconic French decorative-glass maker feature ornamental thick glass applications. Its most in-demand pieces today were made between 1925 and 1935, with very few major ArtDeco-period pieces remaining in private hands and even less without damage. As a significant gift acquired from Don Jacques Daum in 1950, a similarly shaped, constructed and sized circa-1925 vase with "stylized foliage" motif is in the collection of the French Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris as Inventory #36309. A later-produced vase with a similar application-motif at just the rim, but in a "Champagne" bubbled style, is among the photos in the published book about the Leo and Irina Esterkin acquisitions from 1910-1940 titled Daum Art Deco Glass--A Private Collection.
On our prime-condition antique vase, applied transparent glass is styled in high relief into a flowing undulating motif that evolved from Daum's Art Nouveau foliage designs. The angular and curvilinear shapes of this vessel epitomize the bold vases, bowls and sculptures for which Daum is best known. Its tiny pencil-etched signature on the side near the bottom reads "Daum (plus the Lorraine-cross symbol) Nancy France", which resembles some published signatures since 1925.
Revealing how ahead of its time this particular design was--after WWII in 1945 coinciding with the revitalization of the French glass industry--Daum used...
Category
1920s French Art Deco Vintage Berkshires - Jewelry & Watches
Materials
Crystal
